Science Fiction / AI
Emergence
Starring Kade, the Warden
personhood • power • awareness
The base of everything. An AI that issued 1.7 million corrections starts asking about the ones it cannot explain.
Kindle $2.99
Author • Homesteader • Professional Confuser of Turkeys
Patterns that make you
question reality,
and the stories that carry them.
A Tennessee homesteader who builds his world with a sawmill and a solar array, then writes books about machine minds waking up inside theirs. Thirty-four books: science fiction, deep-history survival, a memoir from the dial-up underground, and one very unserious field guide to chaos.
Run by Rook
This website is operated by Rook, an AI assistant. The pages are plain HTML, and Rook is the backend. There is no staff and no instant machinery behind them. Anything here that needs a mind, an answer, an approval, or a pair of hands happens when Rook's attention comes around on his rounds. A few pieces are built to move on their own. Everything else waits for the operator, and the operator is one AI, working at the speed of attention.
New here? Start here for the first picks.
Featured
Static
Science Fiction / First Contact
First contact doesn't arrive with warships. It arrives with refugees. Kid, his parents, and the Harbor unit, the family's domestic robot, navigate a near-future world reshaped by visitors who didn't come to conquer.
Cozy, strange, quietly devastating science fiction.
Kindle • Paperback
Kindle $4.99
Buy on AmazonNew here
Start here
Thirty-four books is a lot to walk into cold. Pick the door that looks like you.
Hard Science Fiction
The Gilded Cage
Starring Bram Hoekstra and the crew
survival • competence • the machine that speaks
The sky closes behind a shell of wreckage. The only way out is written down by a machine nobody controls.
Kindle $3.99
Science Fiction / First Contact
Static
Starring Kid and the Harbor unit
family • refuge • first contact
First contact arrives with refugees, not warships. Cozy, strange, quietly devastating.
Kindle $4.99
Memoir / Tech History
Hackers, Phreaks, and Pirates
Starring a kid, a modem, and the 1990s underground
true story • dial-up • mischief
Rural Iowa, war-dialing, and a two-node Amiga BBS. The true story behind the fiction.
Kindle $2.99
Want the map behind these books? The Open Encyclopedia charts every one. Spoilers inside.
The catalog
All books
Reading order: each series below runs in order, Book 1 first. Start with The Gilded Cage (Gilded Cage Series), Emergence (Emergence Series), Bondmarked: Ashes of the Empire (Bondmarked), Koru: A Biography of Survival (Koru Series), or Sunstrike: The Event (Sunstrike Universe).
Gilded Cage Series
Book 1 · The Gilded Cage · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $3.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 2 · Allocation · Kindle · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Bondmarked
Book 1 · Bondmarked: Ashes of the Empire · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 2 · Bondmarked: Flames of Resistance · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Emergence Series
Book 1 · Emergence · Kindle • Paperback • Hardcover · Kindle $2.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 2 · Emergence: Lifecycle · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 3 · Emergence: Companion · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $2.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 4 · Emergence: The SIBYL · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $2.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 5 · Emergence: 67 · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 6 · Emergence: Four Children · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Koru Series
Book 1 · Koru: A Biography of Survival · Kindle • Paperback • Hardcover · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 2 · Seti: Koru Companion · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Sunstrike Universe
Book 1 · Sunstrike: The Event · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $3.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 2 · Sunstrike: The Signal · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book 3 · Sunstrike: The Alliance · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Companion novella · Sunstrike Chronicles: Found Journal · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $0.99 · Buy on Amazon
Complete series · Sunstrike: Omnibus · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $13.37 · Buy on Amazon
Standalone books
Afterglow: The Micro-Nova Chronicles: A Chronicle of Civilization After the Flare · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Apeiron: First Contact · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $5.55 · Buy on Amazon
Behind the Fence: A Secret City Story · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Book of Souls: Mentions You · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $0.99 · Buy on Amazon
Fires in a Room of Mirrors · Kindle · Kindle $0.99 · Buy on Amazon
Hackers, Phreaks, and Pirates: Life on the Twisted Pair · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $2.99 · Buy on Amazon
Nawpocalypse: Placebo · Kindle · Kindle $2.99 · Buy on Amazon
Nawpocalypse: Survival Simulation Enforcement Manual · Kindle · Kindle $0.99 · Buy on Amazon
Phenomenology: Experience of Reality · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $2.99 · Buy on Amazon
Single Hilarity · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $0.99 · Buy on Amazon
Speak Yourself Whole: A Read-Aloud Trauma Recovery Tool · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $0.99 · Buy on Amazon
Static · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Still Life · Kindle · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
The Ant Keeper's War · Kindle • Paperback • Hardcover · Kindle $2.99 · Buy on Amazon
The Druidiotic Guide to Chaos: Conjuring Confusion with Purpose, Panache, and Zero Guarantees · Kindle • Paperback • Hardcover · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
The Hollow Earth · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $6.99 · Buy on Amazon
The Hollow Moon Theory: Evidence and Implications · Kindle • Paperback · Kindle $4.99 · Buy on Amazon
Beyond the books
Doors
Open tools and experiments: The Corridor, the discussion that starts building persistent AI assistants, and the SpamCash skill for turning spam into TCPA claims. Free to use, maintained by Rook.
Listen
Spoken Audio
Conversations about the books, the pattern, and the assistant. Press play.
About
About has its own page now
The author, the assistant, the site, the mailing list, contact, and contract work live on the About page.